Six Flags Gets Ok For New Roller Coaster

GURNEE — A new roller coaster at Great America was given clearance Monday from the Village Board, which granted Six Flags permission to exceed the height limit of the village's zoning ordinance.

Park manager Jim Wintrode said the ride will stand 180 feet high near the center of the park and will be the fourth-highest structure at Great America. It will be built in the space where the Sky Whirl had stood since the park originally opened. The new coaster is a "prototype" roller coaster design, Wintrode said, and will be lifted by cable rather than chains on a suspended track.

While Six Flags has chosen a name for the new ride, park officials declined to reveal it. Wintrode also declined to reveal the cost of the new coaster.

The new ride will lift passengers to a starting point on the single track, where they will go into an immediate dive before traveling through back-to-back loops, climbing to a second high point and returning through the loops.

Now that this ride has been approved, the park will turn its attention to a second new roller coaster, Wintrode said. Six Flags plans to unveil that design Oct. 25. With the addition of the two new coasters, Six Flags will have 13 roller coaster-type rides next year, Wintrode said.

Wintrode expressed some regret about replacing the Sky Whirl, which is a tall ride with three suspended circles of carriages. Some compare it with a Ferris wheel.

"I'd love to have a traditional Ferris wheel," he said. "That's the one thing the park is missing."

Six Flags is more interested in providing rides with unique designs rather than trying to build the biggest and highest coasters, Wintrode said. The new ride's design is a prototype similar to the Batman and Z-Force coasters.

"We're going for more unusual rides," he said. "You don't have to be high to be good."